The Effects of Exposure to Better Neighborhoods on Children: New Evidence from the Moving to Opportunity Experiment

Abstract

The Moving to Opportunity (MTO) experiment offered randomly
selected families housing vouchers to move from high-poverty
housing projects to lower-poverty neighborhoods. We analyze MTO's
impacts on children's long-term outcomes using tax data. We find that
moving to a lower-poverty neighborhood when young (before age
13) increases college attendance and earnings and reduces single
parenthood rates. Moving as an adolescent has slightly negative
impacts, perhaps because of disruption effects. The decline in the
gains from moving with the age when children move suggests that the
duration of exposure to better environments during childhood is an
important determinant of children's long-term outcomes. (JEL I31,
I38, J13, R23, R38)